


Soup

by chaoticstardust



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, anyone remember soup?, soup is good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 20:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6768787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticstardust/pseuds/chaoticstardust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Really, what can you expect from Joshua?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soup

Joshua was attempting to look as innocent as possible as he strolled through the aisle, right up until his phone rang.  
He checked his caller ID. Neku Sakuraba.  
Neku was phoning? He never called. What could he want?  
“What do you want?” Joshua asked, an air of false irritation in his voice.  
(Of course he was happy Neku had called. He was so easily irritated.)  
“I need your help, can you come over here?”  
On the other end of the line, Neku was fighting off a very determined Rhyme and Shiki as they tried to drag him out the door.  
“Well, I’d love to help you, dear, but unfortunately I’m shopping for clothes at the moment.”  
Oh, wonderful. Joshua was enjoying exactly what Neku was trying to avoid.  
Rhyme and Shiki, it seemed, had decided that Neku’s wardrobe was…. Rhyme had called it ‘lacking’, Shiki had called it ‘tacky’.  
So they were taking matters into their own hands, although Neku really wished they wouldn’t.  
“Okay, then why don’t you find your clothes, buy them, and then come over here? As soon as possible, preferably. Please, Shiki, let me go!”  
“Sorry, Neku, but this is for your own good,” Rhyme giggled. “You need new clothes!”  
“Argh! Joshua, what’s taking so long?!”  
It sounded like Neku was having some trouble.  
Joshua supposed a good friend would rush over to help him, but he was busy.  
So, Neku and his trouble of indeterminate origin would have to wait.  
“Well… I can’t seem to find them.”  
This much was true. As much as he looked around him, any clothes were escaping his notice.  
“What do you mean? Ow!”  
On the other end of the line, Rhyme and Shiki were still trying to drag Neku out of his house.  
“I can’t find the clothes. There’s only soup.”  
Many kinds of soup, but soup nonetheless.  
He saw every soup he knew of, and several more he didn’t.  
“What do you mean there’s only soup?”  
On the other end, Shiki dropped Neku’s arm. Rhyme, on the other hand, simply paused.  
(Had he just said ‘soup’ Wasn’t Joshua shopping for clothes?)  
“Exactly what it sounds like, Neku. There’s only soup.”  
Joshua, for his part, was surprised to hear Neku confused over what he was doing.  
Neku knew him fairly well by now, couldn’t he guess?  
Annoyingly, he had, so far, been taking the whole situation surprisingly well.  
(Joshua wondered why, presuming that perhaps it had something to do with Rhyme’s presence. He had been told some time before that it was not right to subject children to long strings of curse words.)  
“Leave the soup aisle, then!”  
Adhering to this new piece of advice, Joshua left the soup aisle.  
“Okay. ...There’s more soup.”  
Again, this was true. Even more soups Joshua didn’t know of.  
(Not that he would ever tell anyone that, of course.)  
“What?!”  
Finally, an actual reaction. He’d been on the phone for about twenty minutes by now, and this was the first real emotion he’d gotten since the desperation of Neku’s request for help.  
(How was that struggle going? He could hear the girls in the background, but Neku seemed to have escaped being dragged out of his house, however narrowly.)  
“It means there’s more soup, Neku. Really, try to keep up.”  
“Go into the next aisle.”  
And then the emotion was gone, as soon as it had appeared.  
Was Neku getting used to his antics?  
Joshua wasn’t sure he liked that concept.  
He certainly liked this system.  
Still, Joshua moved into the next aisle, browsing the shelves.  
“There’s still soup.”  
(Really? Pineapple soup? Why would anyone eat that?)  
“Joshua, where are you?”  
Neku sounded suspicious.  
Whether that was a good thing or not, Joshua couldn’t tell.  
“I’m at Soup.”  
Which was, of course, where he had meant to go.  
“What do you mean you’re at soup?”  
“I’m at Soup, Neku, it’s not that hard-”  
“What store are you at?”  
Neku was getting irritated now.  
This should be fun.  
“I’m at the soup store, Neku, that should be fairly obvious.”  
The snap was almost audible before Neku spoke again.  
“God damn it, Josh, why are you buying clothes at the soup store?!”  
Ah, there it was. That was the very pissed-off Neku that Joshua knew how to deal with.  
“That’s for me to know, and you to find out, dear.~”  
However, figuring that he had earned his very own personal slap in the face courtesy of Neku, Joshua decided it was about time he helped his suffering friend escape Rhyme and Shiki.  
After all, if anyone was going to drag Neku Sakuraba into shopping for clothes, it would be Joshua.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternatively titled, "In Which Joshua Is At Soup".


End file.
